1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire holding mechanism which holds a tire and which transfers the tire to/from other equipments, and to a post cure inflator having the tire holding mechanism which cools vulcanized tires.
2. Description of Related Art
A tire is vulcanized by treating an unvulcanized tire in molds included in a vulcanizer while maintaining inside the molds at prescribed pressure and temperature. Since the tire immediately after vulcanization is hot and soft, the tire may deform due to its own weight. Further, the tire may contract with cooling. Therefore, some vulcanizers are provided with a post cure inflator. The post cure inflator performs the cooling of the tire immediately after vulcanization while maintaining the shape of the tire (that is, inflation treatment). Conventionally, a loader is disposed between the vulcanizer and the post cure inflator. The tire immediately after vulcanization is transferred from the vulcanizer to the post cure inflator by the loader.
Specially, the post cure inflator is provided with an outside rim attachment flange (that is, first flange) which supports a first bead at one side of the vulcanized tire via an outside rim, and an inside rim attachment flange (that is, second flange) which supports a second bead at the other side of the vulcanized tire via an inside rim. A lock shaft is inserted into a core cylinder (that is, engagement portion) to which the inside rim attachment flange is attached. The lock shaft is allowed to protrude after the outside rim attachment flange is attached thereto. Engagement projections formed at an inner circumference surface of the core cylinder are engaged with lock projections formed at an outer circumference surface of the lock shaft, and thereby the outside rim attachment flange is joined with the inside rim attachment flange. Therefore, the vulcanized tire is held between the flanges.
The outside rim attachment flange and the lock shaft are moved by a moving device, and then the vulcanized tire is put on the inside rim attachment flange by the loader. Subsequently, the outside rim attachment flange and the lock shaft are returned to the initial position by the loader, and then the engagement projections are engaged with the lock projections. Therefore, the vulcanized tire is reliably held between the flanges at a desired width dimension. Thereafter, the vulcanized tire is inflated.
When the width dimension of the tire to be produced is changed, the core cylinder to which the inside rim attachment flange is attached is shifted in an axial direction of the core cylinder, and thereby the distance between the outside and inside rim attachment flanges in condition that the engagement projections are engaged with the lock projections of the lock shaft is adjusted (for example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 2,670,251).
In a system including the vulcanizer and the post cure inflator, the loader must be disposed between the vulcanizer and the post cure inflator. Therefore, space for disposing the loader is needed in the system. In order to perform transfer of the tire between the vulcanizer and the post cure inflator, the vulcanizer must be provided with an escape space for the mold. In addition, the post cure inflator must be provided with another escapespace for the outside rim attachment flange and the lock shaft.
There is a post cure inflator including the vulcanized tire holding mechanism provided with a function for receiving the vulcanized tire (refer to Japanese Patent No. 4045053). Specially, the post cure inflator has a tire moving apparatus. The tire moving apparatus includes a connection device to which an outside rim attachment flange with a rim mold is removably connected, and a rotation arm whose distal end is provided with the connection device. As shown in FIG. 9, the outside rim attachment flange is connected to the connection device, and the rotation arm is rotated to move the outside rim attachment flange, and thereby a vulcanized tire 202A accommodated in a mold 201 of the vulcanizer can be received. After receiving the vulcanized tire 202A, the rotation arm is rotated to move the outside rim attachment flange again, and thereby the outside rim attachment flange is joined with an inside rim attachment flange. Therefore, the vulcanized tire is held between the flanges, and is inflated. Since this post cure inflator can receive the vulcanized tire by moving the outside rim attachment flange, the post cure inflator does not include a loader.
As shown in FIG. 9, in the post cure inflator disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4045053, in a case where the width dimension of the tire to be produced is small, a lock shaft 203 interferes with a bottom surface 201a of a mold 201 and a center mechanism (not shown) arranged at a center of the mold while receiving the vulcanized tire 202B in the mold 201. Although the length of the lock shaft 203 may be arranged in accordance with a narrow width tire, an engagement portion to which the inside rim attachment flange is attached must be projected in advance. Also, in a case where the width dimension of the tire to be produced is large, the engagement portion must be projected. As a result, it is difficult to avoid the size of the post cure inflator from being enlarged.
The present invention has been conceived of in order to solve the above described problem, and it provides a tire holding mechanism and a post cure inflator. The tire holding mechanism included in the post cure inflator can smoothly transfer a tire to/from other equipments regardless of the size of a width of the tire, and can reliably hold the tire while maintaining the desired width of the tire.